Grizzly Watching

Grizzly Bears are magnificent and the biggest reason visitors choose our lodge!

Grizzly bears thrive here and the viewing opportunities are spectacular. We have operated our Grizzly Bear Lodge for decades and know the prime spots for bear watching. The ultimate grizzly bear photo opportunities.

Bears of Knight Inlet

Bear1

Every tour from the lodge involves wildlife viewing in this case a rather large black bear.  This viewing was on a morning grizzly bear trip up Knight Inlet.  We leave the lodge about eight o’clock and it takes a little over an hour to reach the grizzly watching area but along the way we frequently see black bears.  This one enjoying breakfast on the beach, turning over rocks, eating barnacles or muscles, small crabs or anything that moves, as well as seaweed.  This is a good-sized bear and notice the white patch on the chest it is common.  “OK so we can’t all be grizzlies!”  was Harold Bailey’s comment for the photo he provided from his UK was the first week of September. 

Grizzly Bear Alert!

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A day of grizzly bear viewing from our lodge requires a run up BC’s Knight Inlet to a salmon spawning river that attracks bears from the surrounding area. This grizzly seems to have its eye on us as it leaves the river and comes toward the viewing stand. Wildlife viewing, as you know is not a zoo but most of time the results are outstanding.

 

Grizzly bear fishing

So Many Fish So Little Time
So Many Fish So Little Time

This could be a two for one photo provided by Janis (from UK). A great shot of a grizzly bear with a salmon and also in the background, if you look closely a salmon coming over the small falls. If you click on the picture it will enlarge to give you a better view. On the wildlife safari trips it is easier to get a picture of a grizzly bear feeding than a salmon over the falls.

 

Black Bear while Whale Watching

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Wildlife viewing is where you find it and many of the black bears we find are on whale watching trips. This black bear has done a good job of putting on weight over the summer. He is in good shape for the coming winter. This one was not going swimming rather was concentrating on getting more muscles and barnacles from the rocks before the tide rose.

 

Knight Inlet Grizzly Bears

On the lodges grizzly bear tours we often view bears quite close. The viewing stands are located on a narrow road next to Knight Inlet’s Glendale River and after the grizzlies have eaten enough salmon they often pass beneath or very close to the viewing stand. This is the reason we are in an enclosed cage and the bears are free to roam.

 

Knight Inlet Grizzly

Not all grizzly bears look “majestic” when you first see them. After diving for salmon their first appearance they look rather sad. Some of the bear’s fish in shallow water while other take to looking around sunken logs to trap fish. Wildlife viewing is never predictable and every tour is unique.

 

Spring Grizzly Bear Cub

Spring Grizzly Cub

This grizzly bear cub because of the size is from late May or early June.  The mother grizzlies bring their cubs to this part of Knight Inlet to feed on the beaches and turnover rocks. This inter-tidal zone “food” is high in protein and is made up of crab, clams, barnacles, amphipods and other tiny invertebrates. The “beach food” is important because the only plant food available at this time of the year is the sedge grass. Sedge grass also very high in protein and with inter-tidal zone food it keeps the grizzly bears in good health until the salmon arrive. And no the cub wad not alone on the beach but far enough from mother for a good solo picture.  If you click on the photo to enlarge it and then zoom in the cub is not licking anything I can see just sticking out it’s tongue.

 

Grizzly Bear in deep water

Adult Grizzly Bear

Fall grizzly bear viewing from our lodge on Knight Inlet takes place on the Glendale River and a man made salmon spawning channel.  There are two viewing platforms next to the part of the river the salmon use to pass over a weir into the spawning channel.  The second stand we normally use has a deep pool on one side, the natural river on the other two sides leaving the forth for a narrow road.  This grizzly, in the deep pool, has it’s eye on us in the stand maybe because we made to much noise or just out of curiosity. At this time of the year a grizzly bears prime concern is food namely pink salmon.  Hibernation maybe a little more than two months away and this is the time to “bulk up” for the long winter.  A bear without sufficient fat may not survive the winter and in the case of a female it may mean that she will absorb her “eggs” and not proceed with a pregnancy.

Grizzly Bear Eating Pink Salmon

Grizzly eating salmon

Luwen & Liwen from Singapore got a great picture of a grizzly bear on the Glendale River in Knight Inlet eating one of the favourite parts of a salmon it just caught: the eggs or roe. During the peak of the salmon run the bears have access to an abundance of salmon at that time they will eat only the parts highest in calories – the eggs, skin and brains.  Salmon roe and skin are also high in fat; grizzlies will often discard the body of the fish, which is left for the eagles.  Early is the salmon run the grizzly devour the whole fish to “bulk up” for the coming winter this is also true later in the season for those bears that have not achieved sufficient weight or fat to survive the winter.

“Caught in the act” by a Grizzly Bear

Grizzly swimming

Just when you think the grizzly bears you are viewing do not really know that you are there you get one that looks you right in the eye when caught taking a photo.  To put a human touch it would be “A little privacy if you don’t mind.”  The bears on the lodge’s tour up Knight Inlet tend to ignore our intrusion into their life.  In the spring and summer, while they are feeding on the beach they only acknowledge our presence if we get to close.  In the fall in the viewing stands on the Glendale River sudden movement, load noises or a cameras flash left on will get their attention. For the most part the grizzly is aware but chooses to ignore. Guest James O’Donoghue from the UK provided this photo.